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Butan Wear Accused of Biting?

Earlier today I noticed a conversation between @ButanWear and @Vuittots (Thatiso Farrai Dube)

For those who don’t know : B-U-T-A-N is simply a re-arrangement of letters of the word B-A-N-T-U.

The brand name pays homage to our roots and heritage while the re-arrangement of the letters signifies a changed, entirely new mind set and outlook on life in contemporary South Africa.” – http://www.butanwear.com

Thatiso posted these pictures:

and Butan replied and said its the first time they see the Obey Hoodie.

So I decided to call a lawyer buddy of mine and he said “It is copyright infringement if you use someone else’s work and sell it. You can however use images as inspiration as long as you don’t copy it outright. You can copy concepts or popular themes as long as you produce a unique piece of work at the end, any work you do produce automatically becomes your copyright by default.”

But when I look at the pictures that were posted by @Vuittots, the designs look identical or maybe I’m seeing things.

Ooh here is Butan Wear’s excuse : There’s biting, then there’s appropriation. Appropriation is when you deliberately use an iconic, well known symbol into your own context